![]() ![]() SD: Who were the basketball players who exemplified this enforcer attitude as you came up?ĬO: Lucas, Lonnie Shelton, some of the big power forwards. I got a lot from a lot of different people in my upcoming. When I was coming, just my uncles and people and I see every day day in life. I went to a historically Black college and we had a white coach - so he made it through because we was in a conference that had one white coach out of 14 teams and he won championships. My college coach, Dave Robbins, he was the real guy. Who were some of your other inspirations on your path to understanding what it means to be an enforcer?ĬO: Neighborhood people. SD: You mention your grandfather in the book. So I named this book The Last Enforcer way I played and who I stand for. When he was coming up, he’d bring a lot of people with him - you know, “enforcer” is not a bad word. I talk about this in the book, how he was tough, enforced things. I get a lot of my toughness from my grandfather. Was The Last Enforcer always going to be the title of the book? SD: The league is a lot different from the way it was when you played. Playing the league 18 years, a lot of stories, a lot of different things, and I just wanna let ’em know the enforcers. ![]() Why was now the perfect time to write this book?ĬHARLES OAKLEY: Just wanting to tell my story. ![]() SAM DUNN: You’ve been retired from basketball for a while now. And to get the inside story on occasional belligerent moments with Charles Barkley, the iconically physical nature of the 90s Knicks, his enduring brotherhood with MJ, and the impact of George Floyd and the march for social justice, we sat down with Oak for the latest edition of “Boardroom Book Club.” Now approaching 20 years removed from the last game of his career, Charles Oakley is ready to tell his story with a new memoir, The Last Enforcer. But while a championship was not ultimately in the cards, Oak’s legacy defined itself over the course of a decade under the lights at Madison Square Garden that included an All-Star appearance and an Eastern Conference Title in 1993-94. For two decades in the NBA, he utterly was who he was - a stout, rugged presence at the power forward position whose contributions as a defender and rebounder on his come-up with the Chicago Bulls made him the chosen enforcer for none other than Michael Jordan.Ī trade sent him to the New York Knicks in 1988, breaking up an irresistible duo just before the Bulls became a dynasty under Phil Jackson. Charles Oakley is a fundamental force of time and space, not unlike winds, tides, and gravity. ![]()
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